nmah3485.xml

nmah3485.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

My radio alarm went off at 6:08 AM (PST) with the voice of the morning announcer saying "an airplace has crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City". Although I immediately concluded it must be a small private airplane, something about it was highly troubling in the back of my mind. I turned on the TV and within minutes I watched the second airplane crash into the second tower. There was no longer any doubt -- this was the work of brilliantly evil terrorists. They had taken our own people, our own technology, our own innovations and our own cities, and in a devilishly twisted yet incredibly well executed way had turned it all against us. After a few minutes of numbing shock, I realized I had to call the employees of my company and tell them to stay at home and away from our downtown San Francisco office. This was not going to be just another day in the office. Indeed not. This day would be spent glued to the news, shaking our heads and slowly feeling our shock turn to anger and sadness.

The largest change has been positive. I travel less, and stay at home and spend more time with my family.

But whenever I attend public events such as an NFL game, I find myself being much more vigilant and observant. My awareness level of things around me has increased significantly.

That the evils of the world -- evils like Hitler that most thought could never come back in these modern times -- still exist. They are never far from the surface of humanity.

Yes. No.